by S. R. TABONE
“Thank you Mr Peter’s, we’re giving them exercise.” Kirsten said turning her head around but not the unipeg so that he Peters couldn’t see the horn.
“Where you heading?” Peters asked.
“Along the lochan.” Kirsten answered.
“Okay well mind how you go. It’s an awfu dreich day. There’s a storm brewing.” Peters advised. The twins looked around and zipped up their rain coats. The weather was miserable, cold and wet but they were determined to finish what they’d set out to do.
“Thank you for warning us Mr Peter’s, we’ll be off now.” Kirsten said kicking the unipeg to move forward. Nicole followed.
“Good day to ye sir.” Nicole said ridding off.
They arrived at the lochan, found the feathers and spent the day repairing Little Jewel’s wing. A storm approached, the light faded, the wet winds increased. Doris hadn’t heard from twins. She searched the farm and discovered unipegs were missing. She set out in the storm in her old land rover defender to search for them.
She came across Mr Peters who was rounding up his cows into his barn. “Have you seen the twins?” Doris asked.
“Ah, they were heading for the lochan this morning. But Ah have not seen them since. Ah warned them about the storm.” He replied.
Doris continued to drive as far as she could towards the lochan. The storm was becoming stronger and it was darker. The full beam from the headlamps on her vehicle wasn’t strong enough to allow her to see much. She tried several times to call the twins but the storm affected the network and she couldn’t get any reception. She returned to her farm.
The twins hadn’t realised how long they been out for. They’d spent most of their time gathering and repairing Little Jewel’s wing. The storm raging and they had to get back before their great-grandma discovered them missing. Little Jewel was keen to test out the repaired wing. She wanted to try and fly. Morning-star got excited, he hadn’t took flight since arriving at in the Highlands. The twins mounted the unipegs.
“Hold on tight we’re going to try to fly back.” Morning-star said. The unipegs flapped their wings. Morning-star could feel his wings warming up. A few feathers from little Jewel’s repaired wing fell off. But the main feathers held and she flapped hard and took off. Morning-star took off too and followed her. The twins were amazed; they couldn’t believe they were actually being lifted up into the sky. It was dark but they could make out the lights from the floodlights on the farms below. The unipegs made it back to their stable safely. Doris heard the barn door close and went out to investigate.
“Girls! You’re old enough to know better. Why did you go so far without telling me?” She asked the twins.
“You were out Grandma. We got caught up in the storm.” Kirsten said as she dried Morning-star’s back with a towel.
“Don’t be upset Grandma, we only wanted to help repair Little Jewel’s wing.” Nicole said. Doris suspected they’d flown back since she’d only just arrived back on the farm herself and hadn’t seen them riding.
“You’ll be leaving me too wull ye?” Doris said.
“Na Grandma ne’er.” Nicole said.
“If ye do I’ll be aw on my ain.” Doris said. The twins didn’t want to leave their Grandma all on her own so promised never to leave her.
***
A year and a bit had past and the twins had kept their promise not to leave their Grandma. They flew lots of times on the unipegs over Scotland but always returned on the same day. It was a sad spring morning when the twins discovered the Grandma had died during the night in her bed.
Mr Peter’s and his wifie agreed to look after the twins. They lived in the Peter’s family farmhouse but kept Grandma’s cottage and her estate which was left to the twins in her will. The Peters’ knew the twins kept horses—or so they believed the animals to be—so the twins continued to hide the true nature of the creatures from the Peters’.
After the death of their Grandma, the twins had lost interest in making the journey to the island where they believed their parents, Olivia and Nathan, their grandparents, Alex and Bella and their Great-granda, Jake where last known to be. They continued to feel this way until one day a stranger appeared at their cottage with a message.
S. R. Tabone is an English Writer from Great Britain. He holds a BA (Hons) university degree in Creative Writing and Philosophy. He is the Author of, Seven Dark Bells and the Crystal Sword (Book 1)
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